Rupert Murdoch’s flagship newspaper warned that the growing chaos of Donald Trump’s presidency could derail Republican hopes in the November midterm elections.
The Wall Street Journal, which Trump called a “rotten” newspaper in an unhinged attack aboard Air Force One last May, published a fiery editorial on Thursday headlined “Donald Trump, Not Unchained.” Trump backing down from his demand to acquire Greenland “shows the limits of his power,” it said.
The paper’s editorial board handed the president a brutal reality check, pointing out that his approval rating has plummeted, his illegal immigration crackdown and mass deportations are widely seen as “excessive,” his flip-flopping tariff policies are “unpopular,” and even Republican voters aren’t a fan of his desire to forcibly annex Greenland.
Trump, 79, has declared the U.S. needs the semiautonomous island, which is part of Denmark, for “national security and even international security” reasons. But after threatening to impose tariffs on multiple European countries unless the territory was transferred to the U.S., the president backed down this week, announcing that he had reached a framework agreement with NATO regarding Greenland’s future.
“It’s hard to know what Mr. Trump might do next, which feeds public anxiety,” the editorial noted, adding that “as his popularity ebbs, so does his political capital.”
The Journal warned that the GOP could be headed for a midterm disaster if the current trajectory continues.
“Democrats took November’s races in Virginia and New Jersey in a rout. The GOP House majority is in peril, and the Senate is competitive,” the board argued. “Mr. Trump’s attempts to gerrymander a safer House majority have backfired as Democrats have done the same.”
“The ultimate check on power is an election,” the editorial board concluded, warning that Trump’s “bull-dozing governance may be building the opposition that costs his party its majority in November.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
A growing number of prominent voices, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina have warned of trouble for Trump as the midterms approach this November.
Meanwhile, the president has begged Republicans to pull out the stops in the midterms to stop Democrats from attempting to impeach him.
The Journal has criticized Trump throughout his second term in the White House, angering the president, who last May said the newspaper had “gone to hell.”
